Simon Almström Posts

Once again I went to one of Mercuri International’s breakfast seminar here in Stockholm. These seminars hold very high standard and this time was no exception. Last time, the subject was Indirect Leadership and this time the topic was The secret behind a successful negotiation.

How we organise our companies and departments will make a big different to the results that we are getting. Self-organising teams are becoming increasingly popular, partly because of Scrum and other agile way of working, because it has proven to be a scalable and effective way to run our business. We are going to look at the five conditions that are needed to cultivate high performing self-organising teams. As a leader or a team coach it is necessary to know these five conditions to help the team achieve great results, increase efficiency and to become more motivated in the process.

We have learned that goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. As a product owner, I apply this in many situation to help the team focus and to make progress. However last week I threw out the SMART goals and got fantastic results because of it.

Recently I went to Stockholm to listen to a breakfast seminar held by Mercuri International. The subject for the morning was Indirect Leadership. I thought the subject was especially intriguing because of the ‘indirect’ aspect of it. And once I started to think about it a little bit it hit me that I personally have not really made the distinction between direct and indirect leadership.

I never thought I would write a post about networking. Although I might not have said it, in my mind networking meant shallow small talk and I often saw it as a self-promoting activity to boost the ego. I do not have much time over for that and I am not comfortable calling attention to myself.

But over the last year especially, I have had to change my mind about networking. Since I started standing on my own feet as self-employed I have had re-evaluate much about myself, including the need for a strong and wide network. Thanks to this, I have looked back through my career and noticed people that has been good at networking in a way that does not feel shallow or self-promoting.

In today’s society extroversion is the expected behaviour. We are expected to be able to hold a conversation with anyone, work in groups, brainstorm at workshops and enjoy a good party. These things does not come naturally for everyone and for all introverts out there this require some training.

Year 2016 is here. We leave 2015’s successes and disappointments behind and look forward to what is laying ahead of us. It is now we give our New Year’s resolutions and promise ourself what we shall change in our lives. Some people do it with public proclamations and others quietly to themselves.

Effective leaders know their way of communicating have a great impact on how people feel and on the way people work. Destructive communication leads to lower trust and productivity, people who criticise each other and a place where people will primarily look after themselves. In an environment where people communicate constructively on the other hand, there will be a more open and candid atmosphere with higher trust and respect, where it is much easier to solve sensitive issues and where productivity increases.

One of my colleagues recently asked me: Simon, what is leadership to you? It is an important questions that guides my whole approach to leadership. It affects my leadership style and how I approach and think about people.

Before I give my answer I think it is important to differentiate between what leadership is and what we do to do be effective at leading. Much of what I have written about at this blog so far has been in the latter category; what we do to be efficient at leading. They are related to each other in that our behaviours are guided by our motives; what we think leadership is will guide how we lead.

I have written about products and platforms on the blog before. This seem to be conversation that I am getting back to with both friends and colleagues. I have given arguments why it might not be a good idea to build a platform in my previous post Two arguments for avoiding platforms. In this post I am talking about why you should build platforms but also, more importantly, what you should think about when doing it.